Duarah Nath - Kumaon, India. 23d August 1878

Oil painting on paper of Dwarahat in Kumaon by Marianne North (1830-1890), dated 23rd August 1878. Marianne North visited India in 1877-79 and completed over 200 paintings whilst there. She wrote in Volume II of 'Recollections of a Happy Life' (1892), "At last we reached Duara, a most holy place of the Hindus, with numbers of small temples spread over its rich valley...I started off to see the most lovely little temple, not more than eight feet long, resting on the backs of tiny elephants, like a minature copy of the great Kylas at Ellora. The whole building was a mass of rich carving...The elephants were quite natural, and in high relief, with half of their bodies detached from the wall. All the other temples were of the usual order, looking best at a distance, when mixed up with fine trees and backed by gray mountains and rain-clouds."